Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Download Outcast by Kiru Taye FREE on Kindle

In case you didn't know already, Outcast was published over the weekend. You can download it free from Amazon until Nov 6.If you don't have a kindle, you can still read it by downloading the Amazon Kindle free reading app for your phone, pc or tablet. Book Release Blitz

Blurb

Ugo’ji
is an outcast, an untouchable. She lives on the fringe of society as the lowest
of the low, a living sacrifice to the gods. The only person she interacts with
is her aged grandmother Nne who nurtures her powerful gift of healing. Until
the day she meets Ebube a strange warrior to their lands. He ignites a yearning within her she's unable to
ignore.

Ebube
is drawn to the young maiden with the emerald green eyes who possesses the body
of a goddess and the healing touch of an angel. But he is forbidden from mating
with a human and the consequence is the wrath of the gods.

Moreover
he is on a mission. If he fails, the gates of hell will be opened and the earth
plunged into darkness. He cannot stay and she cannot go with him.

Excerpt

Help me...Do whatever it takes...Keep the gates of
Alammuo sealed.

Darkness tugged
at him and threatened to pull him into its murky depths. With a jerk, Ebube sat
up on his pallet. The creaking wood and thumping of his heart echoed in his acutely
responsive ears.

Danger seeped
from the nightmare he couldn’t remember into the air, leaden and oppressive.
His breath heaved as he choked, his throat clogged with the fetid stench of death.

On reflex, he
extended his right arm, grabbing the scabbard he always kept within reach, the
pitch shadow no hindrance for his sharp eyesight. As a leopard-shifter, his
vision was excellent, night and day. He didn't need to look at his hands to see
the extended claws. Sharp tips dug into his palm. He ignored the sting and his
awkward grip on the carved wooden hilt of the single edge sword.

His beast came
to the fore, clawing to take over, an instinctive response to potential
threats. Muscles tensed, Ebube fought the shift. Sweat streaked down his body
in rivulets. He swiped his face with his left palm, stopping the liquid from
dripping into his eyes.

Sweeping his
gaze across the large, airy chamber of his sparsely-decorated home, he sought
the source of danger setting off his internal alarm.

Apart from the
raised bamboo sleeping platform covered in padded deer hide and the wooden
trunk that stored his personal belongings, the only other items were his tools
of warfare – his spears, shields, machetes and scabbards. They hung on the
single-rung mantel against the burnt-umber rock wall, gleaming with polish and
sharpness, ready for use. Undisturbed.

A tingle ran up
his spinal column, the way it always did when he sensed something out of place.
Something terribly wrong. He swung his legs around. Cool unglazed stone flooring
met his bare feet. The muscles on his back tensed, primed for action. Slowly,
he stood to his full height and walked through the room.

His home
consisted of two chambers, one for sleeping and the other for entertaining
guests. Though as a guardian, a special warrior of the gods, he could live as
luxuriously as the gods did, they had agreed communally to live as simply as
humans of the era so as not to draw attention to themselves as supernatural
beings.

Nothing was out
of place in his rooms, no stray, malevolent being in the vicinity. Yet the tingling
in his bones didn't dissipate. When he found nothing inside, he grabbed the
wooden knob, opened the door and walked onto the corridor linking his residence
to the rest of his family's. Their homes were hewn out of Amauwa rocks, a hill
range in the middle of the rain forest.

He stopped in
front of the last house, the tension on his shoulders increasing. Nothing
lurked inside it, living or inanimate. Yet the memory of the previous occupant
flooded his mind, hitting him low in the abdomen, spreading pain through his
body. Gritting his teeth, he shook his head and turned his back to the building
and its unwelcome memories.